News

Little Mina saved by 3D printer heart

A GIRL of two born with a heart so deformed doctors thought it could not be
repaired is living a normal life after scientists used a 3D printer to
create a copy of the organ.

Mina Khan is one of the first Britons to benefit from a pioneering technique
in which 3D printers create replicas of diseased organs.

These are then used to show surgeons what they will find inside a patient’s
body, and even to practise procedures, before operating on the person.

In Mina’s case, it meant doctors treating her at St Thomas’ Hospital in London
could see the exact dimensions and position of the large and potentially
deadly hole in the wall between two of her heart chambers.

“She was so sick,” said Natasha Buckley, Mina’s mother. “She was constantly
breathless, found it hard to eat and was putting on no weight because her
heart was working so